Little Rock Pride Parade

More than 500 people attended the first pride parade in Little Rock on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013.
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More than 500 people attended Little Rock's first pride parade on Saturday to support diversity and equality, a parade official said.

At about 2 p.m., the parade kicked off at 610 E. Capitol Ave., continued down Scott St. and Clinton Ave., through the River Market to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and then finished its final leg of the journey by returning back to E. Capitol Ave.

The parade had about 15 floats and was supported by about 30 organizations who participated in the parade, Central Arkansas Pride committee chair Jennifer Pierce said.

The Central Arkansas Pride committee is a part of the Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays organization, which sponsored the event with the Human Rights campaign. The parade was held this month to coincide with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month, Pierce said.

"It's the first pride parade in Arkansas's capital, and it's a show of support for the LGBT community," she said. "Everybody from all works of life came together to have a good time."

About five to seven churches also participated in the parade, including the First Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, the New Millennium Church in Little Rock and the Grace Episcopal in Pine Bluff, Pierce said.

"I personally asked some of the area churches that came, and most of them did agree to come," she said. "A lot of the churches contacted us to get involved."

Pierce said she was surprised that no protestors were present at the parade. The committee anticipated that there would be protestors since another pride parade hosted in Conway had several protestors at theirs within the past few years.

"Whenever you get a lot of people who sometimes disagree on issues, there's sometimes going to be protestors there," she said.

For the Little Rock Pride Parade next year, Pierce said it will have more "music, diversity, churches and notice." She said the parade was "thrown together at the last minute," because the committee started planning the parade in July.

"We're really happy that it was a success and that the rain let up just in time for the start of the parade," Pierce said.

I have a a couple of honest questions about this event and hope I can get a few non-prejudicial explainations: What is the real purpose to have a gathering of people to publicly declare they have different sexual preferences? What sort of support are these folks hoping to gather ?

I'm not overtly religious or a prude, I enjoy sex a lot, but I don't have sex in the front yard.I just don't get it.